The Seasonal Spike
Back-to-school and return-to-office seasons have long driven major sales increases for consumer electronics suppliers. But in 2025, trends are accelerating further.
In late 2024 and early 2025, major companies like Dell, Amazon, Salesforce, and JPMorgan launched return-to-office mandates which triggered increased hardware purchases, including collaborative tech, upgraded workstations, and office furniture (Computerworld). Still, hybrid work remains the long-term reality and is expected to remain dominant over the next 12 months. This means consumers will continue to invest in their home office setups for the near future. In fact, this year, the demand for PCs and laptops is expected to grow due to the need to replace items bought during 2020s peak demand (the replacement cycle for mobile PCs is typically five and a half years) (NIQ 2025 State of Tech and Durables report).
Back-to-school shopping also continues to prioritize technology. Online retailers have consistently increased their share of traditional school supply sales over the past five years, growing from 22.7% in 2019 to 37% in 2023. Now nearly 90% of K12 students use computers or tablets in school and nearly half at home (Numerator). This highlights the growing importance of electronics in back-to-school baskets as parents restock for their children in August/September.
Discover more back-to-school consumer trends in NIQ’s latest report, Back to School 2025: Consumer Shifts Brands and Retailers Can’t Ignore.
What’s Selling and What’s Next?
This peak season, buyers are investing in tools that support flexibility, efficiency, and smarter tech experiences, both at home and in the office.
What’s selling now:
- Hybrid working gear: monitors, noise-canceling headphones, keyboards, mice, and adjustable desks.
- Academic tech tools: Tablets, smart pens, routers, wireless keyboards
- Office organization upgrades: Storage, lighting, and multi-purpose furniture.
Trends in 2025?
- AI-powered devices: As AI-capable PCs hit the mainstream, retailers and manufacturers should bridge the awareness gap. Educating consumers on everyday use cases and justifying higher price points for AI, will be key. (NIQ 2025 State of Tech and Durables report).
- Interactive hardware: foldables and voice-activated tools
- Wearable tech: Smartwatches and smart glasses
How to Use Online Product Content to Maximize Returns this Season
With limited time to convert traffic into sales, your product content can truly make or break a sale. Here’s what matters most:
- Speed to market: Getting new products or updated versions online quickly across retailers is crucial. Delays can mean lost momentum and revenue.
- Cross-channel consistency: Images, specs, and benefits must be uniform and optimized for every platform. A headset on your site should match what’s seen on Amazon, Staples, and reseller sites always.
- It’s all in the details: Tech buyers need allll the tech specs when purchasing, and if you’re missing some, you could miss out on sales.
- Incorporating rich media content: Rich media (like 360° views, AR features, feature sets/A+ content) is the key to communicating value. With technology products and hybrid-use products, seeing is believing!
- Comparison charting: Display comparison charts to enable fast, easy, and more confident decision-making for consumers.
With back-to-school, WFH, and return-to-office dynamics converging, the opportunities are huge, but only for brands ready to meet demand with speed and compelling content.
Make your catalog work harder across your channels by ensuring your product pages are primed, your messaging is on point, and your data is always one step ahead.
NIQ Brandbank: Now Offering Technology Data!
NIQ Brandbank provides clients from around the world with essential product data for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers to power their e-commerce efforts. With an extensive database of over 20 million SKUs in consumer electronics, office, and IT, NIQ Brandbank proudly stands as a global leader in delivering high-quality product data. Our team, combined with decades of e-commerce expertise, is passionate about optimizing online shopping for our clients.
To learn more, visit Technology Product Content Solutions – NIQ
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